anybody, questions on the-- >> yeah, mike, it's beckel. mcconnell stayed out of this thing all along until he comes in at the last minute and i give him credit for trying it. at the last minute he drops in a reevaluation of the cross limit on entitlements which mired up the whole thing. we know full well you can't get that done in a day. why in the world is mcconnell messing with this thing. >> bob, you've probably been part of these high profile negotiations. >> i have. >> and dana mass. it's horse trading. bottom line, he probably wasn't happy with where the tax rate was going and said, well, this is something that would be good for our side. so, can we essentially save some money on the inflation rate in regards to perhaps social security. he says it's not a deal breaker. if they don't want this, we can drop it. and he essentially said, af been waiting 18 hours for a counter proposal from senate majority leader harry reid and so that's when mcconnell went to the bullpen and called the vice-president, his old buddy to see if they could c